When Malcolm Turnbull's leadership imploded over the emissions trading scheme last December Kevin Rudd looked impregnable. He seemed on the verge of inflicting a massive defeat on the Coalition. Barely more than six months later, the Prime Minister's authority was last night in crisis.
In the past few weeks, colleagues have become openly disparaging of the man who once had approval ratings in the 70s.
Ironically, the ETS, which Mr Rudd used to skewer Turnbull and Brendan Nelson has contributed to the crisis that has engulfed Mr his leadership.
But the Rudd style, a series of bungled schemes and an opposition that has mounted a blanket no case to all of his initiatives, has seen Mr Rudd slide from unprecedented popularity to a man under seige.
In the week before Mr Turnbull's demise, the Liberals' primary vote had crashed to 30 per cent and the Coalition's primary vote stood at 35 per cent. This week, it was Labor's primary vote that was mired at 35 per cent while a resurgent opposition was polling 40 per cent.
And MPs facing the prospect of a bitter election battle for survival were increasingly anxious and asking how it came to this? And increasingly they have begun to lose faith in his ability to take them to the next election.
"How can a 54-year-old man change 80 per cent of his personality," said one MP who blamed the Prime Minister for Labor's current predicament.
In contributing to Mr Turnbull's demise, Mr Rudd opened the way for Mr Abbott to take the Liberal leadership. The new leader adopted a hard-line "no" stance to all of the government's key policies and Mr Rudd's strategy of attempting to co-opt his opponents to his cause was brought to an end.
Mr Rudd's slide in popularity started with the Copenhagen summit's failure to reach an agreement on climate change in December but was accelerated by the bungled insulation scheme that saw him strip Peter Garrett of responsibility for the program in the same week as he had expressed his confidence in the minister
